I got my Spot in the late spring of 2010 in preparation for a trip on the Thelon River in northern Canada. It worked flawlessly and many of our friends followed our progress via the track progress feature. Since that time I have only used it occasionally and again it worked fine. My guiding partner Doug Fitzgerald started hiking the Northville - Lake Placid Trail yesterday and was hoping to take it with him so that people could monitor his progress. About a month ago I got it out, renewed my "track progress" account and gave it a test run. Low and behold I couldn't get it to find a satellite signal. I put in fresh batteries, took it out onto the lake where I was confident there was no interference with the signal and still nothing. I emailed customer support and they said, "We would advise to change the batteries, leave the SPOT outside ON for about 20 minutes and then try to send the message." It was pretty much what I did but I tried again. They said if it still didn't work to try calling them. So I called them and another similar suggestion was provided saying if it didn't work to call back. So I called back and a young lady basically said the only thing to do was to buy a new one. I said, "That all, there are no repair options?" She offered a rebate that was available to all buyers but that was it. To say I was disappointed and frustrated is an understatement. To have an item that cost that much fail after only two years does not seem right. I wrote a quick note to tech support stating my frustration and that seems to be the end of it. The Spot is like the girl with the curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she is good she is very very good but when she is bad she is horrid.
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